Before this even kicks off, can we point out that not all children in Louisiana are being taught this?

Originally Posted by CGNYC

Yeah, I said "can learn," but in the midst of this inanity it might be overlooked.

It's also worth noting that the state government is clearly okay with this curriculum. (ed: On second thought, I may be wrong about how vouchers are issued)

Thousands of children in the southern state will receive publicly-funded vouchers for the next school year to attend private schools where Scotland's most famous mythological beast will be taught as a real living creature.

It's odd, though, since the state has a large Catholic population (which obviously isn't anti-Catholic), and Catholicism endorses the theory of evolution. Anyway, I'm waiting for the US Supreme Court to lay the smackdown on this.

Louisiana is mostly Catholic in the south but mostly Baptist in the north - and there aren't a lot if casual Baptists. There are also a lot of people who send their kids to religious schools and never really investigate what that means. They hear "conservative Christian" and that's good enough. LOTS of Christian schools use that Abeka business and parents are surprised when I point out what Abeka is really all about.

Louisiana is mostly Catholic in the south but mostly Baptist in the north - and there aren't a lot if casual Baptists. There are also a lot of people who send their kids to religious schools and never really investigate what that means. They hear "conservative Christian" and that's good enough. LOTS of Christian schools use that Abeka business and parents are surprised when I point out what Abeka is really all about.

Originally Posted by CGNYC

Thanks, I'm glad to know more about the context of this, especially since that article is from a Scottish newspaper.

My feeling is that even if you (general you) don't believe in evolution, your kid still needs to understand what it's about. You can teach them it's not true, but if they don't know anything about it then they may have trouble in college and in their careers.

I didn't see the part about Catholocism, but could see that happening, too.

Originally Posted by NetG

It's in the article, but it's buried in the middle of a paragraph:

"The textbooks in the series are alleged to teach young earth creationism; are hostile towards other religions and other sectors of Christianity, including Roman Catholicism; and present a biased version of history that is often factually incorrect."

Louisiana is mostly Catholic in the south but mostly Baptist in the north - and there aren't a lot if casual Baptists. There are also a lot of people who send their kids to religious schools and never really investigate what that means. They hear "conservative Christian" and that's good enough. LOTS of Christian schools use that Abeka business and parents are surprised when I point out what Abeka is really all about.

Originally Posted by CGNYC

Thanks, I'm glad to know more about the context of this, especially since that article is from a Scottish newspaper.

My feeling is that even if you (general you) don't believe in evolution, your kid still needs to understand what it's about. You can teach them it's not true, but if they don't know anything about it then they may have trouble in college and in their careers.

Originally Posted by Eilonwy

An old coworker of mine was home-schooled and didn't even know the idea of evolution existed until he went to some museums as an older teen/adult.

Anyway, there are a lot of areas in Louisiana where the public schools just aren't that great. People will put their kids in a small Christian school because it's better than the local public school, if nothing else. A lot of people either don't investigate the whole curriculum or decide that even if their kids don't learn about evolution, at least they'll be able to read and they'll be safe.

We moved to avoid that situation. We're still in state and my daughter's school is fantastic, but you don't have to go very far to find schools where most of the kids are below grade level in just about everything. It's sad but large parts of Louisiana are really poor and where you have poverty, you don't have a lot of good schools.

Nah, Florida is where the really crazy ish goes down. (Sorry Floridian curlies, but you know it's true.) The internet's favorite guessing game is "Florida or Germany/Austria?"

Originally Posted by Eilonwy

How about Texas? They re-wrote a bunch of history textbooks to say the Founding Fathers wanted god in the Constitution, erased evolution, and whitewashed slavery. And, since Texas is such a large buyer of textbooks (they're the size of...a country!), they can influence textbooks all over the country. Pretty embarrassing...and funking crazy.